PUDNEY, John. Sixpenny Songs. The Bodley Head. 1953.
8vo. Original cloth and wrapper; pp. 32; very good. Provenance: inscribed to ffep "Rodney-/ with considerable/ cardiac involvement/ P 15.9.53". With loose typescript, 6ll., stapled at top left corner, of unpublished poem "Casualty", inscribed by Pudney "Rodney/ Nearly the final draft/ John".
First edition. This is a book of poems largely about ordinary twentieth century life in rural England, turning away from the war poetry with which Pudney is most closely associated. The unpublished poem included here, "Casualty", is probably from earlier in his career as it narrates the inner monologue of a wounded soldier as he is taken from the battlefield to hospital, with interjections from a medic.
#2115601